


Heres to You California (Though I'll Be Staying Right Here)

by annaaperson



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: (but still demigods), BAMF Will Solace, College, Fluff, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Protective Nico, Tired!Will, Will Solace has Healing Powers, hurt!Connor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:08:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24331843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annaaperson/pseuds/annaaperson
Summary: Will was going to college in New York and not New Rome because he wanted a break from the whole demigod life for a hot second.For some reason that sounded an awful lot like Clarisse yelling at him for help, he had a feeling it wasn't gonna be that easy.(aka, Will's chilling at college but Clarisse drags a hurt Connor up to him and forces him to help Connor in front of his shocked peers. And of course Nico's reaction and them being dorks)
Relationships: Clarisse La Rue/Chris Rodriguez, Mitchell/Connor Stoll, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 12
Kudos: 312





	Heres to You California (Though I'll Be Staying Right Here)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I wrote this all in one night and kinda half edited it so, sorry if it doesn't make sense. Have fun reading! :)

If Will knew people were gonna be so judgy with him skipping a semester of pre-med and he wasn't so Done with the world at the ripe old age of 17, he might’ve considered just sitting through classes that he already knew the material for. As infuriating as sitting through a class of people learning that they couldn’t stomach the sight of someone's severed leg would be, the amount of judgy stares he got from people who used to be the top of the class or the teachers favorite was honestly concerning. 

Sorry that Will couldn't help it if he had his first patient (and sibling) die at age 10 and seen more severed limbs than your average doctor by 15. Sue him. These classes, at least for him, were more about getting an actual degree and learning to work machines (that weren’t at camp for obvious reasons) than about learning actual ways to save people. He had already done plenty of that. So if he knew practically everything in the course, except some random terms that he honestly didn't see the point of learning, and that pissed some people off, so what. They could deal. 

Sure, there were a few people that were a bit suspicious. Will would be kinda surprised if there wasn't. Surely a 17 year old skipping a semester of pre med and becoming top of the class with seemingly endless knowledge isn't common. But luckily people didn't really ask questions, and those who did were just ignored and passed off as being jealous. 

Overall, choosing to go to a mortal med school had its perks. And if he was laughing quietly while others stared in horror as their professor showed pictures of ‘the worst possible situations’ (Will had seen way worse) well, lets just say being a demigod gave you a truly traumatizing sense of humor. 

~

If Will’s being honest, he’s kinda regretting not going to New Rome for schooling. Sure, at the time of his decision he knew that staying to go to med school in New York would cut down on Nico’s shadow traveling along with not putting a big strain on their relationship, and he’s always close to camp if they need help. Y'know, just in case another major war breaks out. Given the fact that his father is now a mortal and everything during his duration of time at camp, a new major and highly dangerous event that he is needed for wasn’t too far out of the question and he wanted to be close by just in case. 

A small part of him also wanted a bit of time away from the whole demigod thing. Sure, he might’ve had a bit of a major scent that came with his healing capabilities, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. Plus, mix it with all the chemical scents that came from the labs required for pre-med students and the charms Lou Ellen continuously gave him to throw monsters off and he's pretty much set, even with the tremendous amount of technology he’s surrounded by on a daily basis. 

Didn’t people realize they didn't have to go everywhere with their phones? Maybe being a demigod and knowing that those phones everyones so keen on bringing around could be his death sentence makes him a bit biased about that certain topic. 

So, yeah. He wanted to take a tiny step away from the demigod world. Sure, there was a bit of anxiety coming with not being at camp, wondering if his siblings were dying while he was stressing out over a final. 

_But_ he had Nico visiting at least once a week to keep him updated. And while he was _technically_ still head counselor of the Apollo cabin, Apollo himself was also residing at the Apollo cabin, not to mention that it wasn’t summer so really only Kayla and Austin were there anyway. They could take care of themselves. And if they couldn’t, he really wasn’t that far away from camp. He could always be reached, even if he didn’t have a phone.

He was kinda regretting that major availability now. Maybe he should’ve taken the offer to go to California.

~

“Solace!”

Will froze as the voice registered in his mind. He was just walking across the campus courtyard after one of his favorite classes with a couple of people when the voice cut through the quiet chatter of overworked students. The acquaintances he was walking with had already stopped and turned around to face the noise but Will couldn’t bring himself to move. _Seriously???_ He thought. _How the Hades??_

“Solace, I swear to gods!”

Another yell finally snapped him out of his trance and he turned around to face a somewhat disheveled Clarisse who was half carrying, half dragging an even more disheveled body towards him. _Wait- was that?_ Yup, that was definitely the body of Connor Stoll. Will bit back a groan. Just his luck.

He could already form a mini summary in his mind of what had happened. There were monsters spotted near Will’s college, and some person thought it would be a good, or, more likely, _funny_ idea to send Clarisse and Connor on a journey to kill them and the two were probably arguing so much that Connor got hurt. And they probably didn't bring any medical supplies because they knew Will was close by. Will kinda wanted to bash his head in for letting everyone know that he always carried around medical supplies instead of textbooks, but for now he settled on sprinting over to Clarisse to see what the Hades Connor had gotten himself into. 

As soon as Clarisse saw that Will was starting to head towards them, she quickly laid the bleeding Connor on the grass with less than graceful measures. Which is to say, she promptly let go of him and took great amusement in seeing him flop on the grass as Will came nearer. 

“What the Hades happened?” Will stated more than asked as he started assessing Connors injuries. They were nothing too severe, just a couple of gashes on his arms and legs. But he could feel something was off. He quickly lifted up Connors shirt to see a stab wound gracing his abdomen and painting his stomach a deep red. He quickly went to prodding at the wound, ignoring Connors hisses and whines of pain and quickly glancing his eyes up to meet Clarisse. 

“Someone spotted a couple of empousi close by,” _Called it._ “And for some gods forsaken reason they decided to pair me with this shit for brains individual. And I thought it was gonna be an easy fight cause I’m straight and this assholes gay, but then when I say this, he decides to go on a rant about Mitchell!” At this she throws her hands up, as if it was an outrageous event, ignoring the fact that she would likely do the same exact thing for Chris. Not that Will would say this to her face of course. They may have an understanding with each other and be considered friends, but he knew how to pick his battles and he very much liked his face without several broken bones, thank you very much. “So he's suddenly not paying attention anymore and one comes right in front of him, very much in his sightline, and stabs him.” She huffs, as if offended about how obvious the monster should’ve been to see. “We didn’t think to pack any medical stuff so we thought the safest bet would be to find you.”

Will suppressed another sigh at this. “Well, the wound itself isn't that bad and it's not poisoned so it _wouldn't_ be that bad to heal.” His hands had already long since left Connors body as he dug through his bag for the right materials. He was vaguely aware of the stares of his peers on him and the rest of the scene, but he ignored them and continued searching for the small vial that always slipped to the most hard to find places. The mist should have covered the weapons and the more magical materials he was using. He could pass the monster talk as delirious talk from shock or as code names for other more normal situations. As for the injuries and why they knew to come to him and why he would be so ready and prepared to stitch a stab wound, well… lets just say that one might require some thinking and well timed explanations.

“Wouldn’t?” Will didn't even need to look up to know that Clarisse was leveling a glare his way. She absolutely hated whenever anybody left something ambiguous out into the air, preferring straightforward answers. But she could deal as far as Will was concerned. He was running on 1 hour of sleep, 3 cups of coffee and adrenaline filled anxiety.

“Please take note of our setting.” He didn't even spare her a glance as he arranged the materials in a more practical order and undid Connors belt to fold and shove it into his mouth as a makeshift gag. Connor was so out of it that he only weakly bit down, not even trying to resist. Will would feel bad, _if_ they had not relied on him for everything medical and actually thought about the possibility of _getting hurt_ when fighting _mythical monsters_ for once in their lives. He knew that Clarisse would be taking in the circle of depressed mortal college students that were most likely surrounding them and looking on in wonder.

“I can't exactly proceed in a normal fashion under these circumstances. Also excuse me for not having a full infirmary's worth of supplies with me at all times. Hold down his arms, Connor this is gonna sting.” He didn't bother to wait long enough for Connor to register his words as he quickly poured some antiseptic mixed with a bit of nectar on the wound. Connor, quite predictably he might add, tried to scream and thrash around, but Clarisse had a mean grip and the belt prevented him from biting his own tongue off and from waking up people that lived on campus with his screaming. 

“How much longer Solace?” Clarisse growled out. She clearly wasn't happy with the job of holding the wiggling brunette in place.

“Oh, I only have to stitch the wound and apply a few more salves, nothing much” he replied, already reaching for a small square of ambrosia. “Take the belt out of his mouth and give him this and when he's done chewing put it back in, I don't feel like listening to him talk.” He could’ve sworn Clarisse muttered an agreement with him under her breath, but he focused on getting ready to stitch the wound instead. 

Overall, it really wasn’t the worst injury he's seen from an empousa alone and it really wouldn't be that much of a pain to stitch. He silently thanked the gods and hoped that he would get this over and done with enough time left to change before his weekly IM with Nico. He started up the process of effectively stitching the wound closed as he glanced up and noticed that the belt was back in place inside of Connor’s mouth. That meant that the ambrosia would hopefully kick in soon. It was only a small square, but it should have fixed any lingering issues about him bleeding to death on the way back to camp. 

He quickly finished the stitching off and rubbed a few salves on the stab wound as well as the other minor cuts and scrapes he had and was pleased to note that he seemed to be in much better shape, if spitting out his belt to try to curse/threaten Will was any indication. Will droned out the sounds of Clarisse and Connor arguing about whose fault it had been while packing up the rest of the supplies that he didn't use. 

“Any other life-threatening injuries you failed to tell me about?” His deadpan voice broke through their arguments as they quickly turned to him, Connor looking somewhat sheepish.

“No, and uh, Will? Could you maybe, uh I don't know, uh not mention this to Nico? Cause I really don’t wanna accidently rip my stitches running away from him cause I made you mad or bothered you or something.” Connor was obviously pandering to Wills medical side by mentioning his stitches, but at this point Will was too Done to even deal with it. He wanted to be home like, negative seven hours ago at the least.

“Fine. But you get to tell Mitchell about your injuries.” Connors face predictably paled at that and Will could barely resist from smirking. Will took great pride in how much Mitchell was like him when it came to their boyfriends getting themselves injured. He had truly taught him well.

“Well, we better get going if we want to make it back to camp before dark. See you later Solace. Oh, and don't forget to come back in time for the solstice, you know how your siblings can get and Nico is probably already freaking out about it. Godsspeed!” She bodily pulled Connor, ignoring his yelps and complains about how his stitches would come undone, through the crowd which, quite predictably, opened up a pathway for her. They waved quickly before they were both running away in the direction they came from, which hopefully would lead them to camp. 

Will shook his head in amusement as he turned to pick up his bag and make his way back to his dorm. He paused when he saw everyone continuing to watch him. “Ummm, hi?” He gave an awkward wave paired with his signature smile in hopes of dispelling the crowd. 

To his utter and complete disappointment, it didn’t really work. He even noted a few of his professors in the mix of all the chaos. Distantly he wondered if he could get extra credit for stitching a stab wound, or maybe get out of an essay or two. _That_ would have made healing Connor really worth his trouble. Writing essays should've been easy considering he already knew everything, but throw in ADHD along with some heavy dyslexia and annoying long medical terms and it became a much more difficult task. As he was contemplating the exploitation potential of publicly stitching up Connor, someone in the crowd finally addressed him. 

“Dude, what the hell was that?” Several people seemingly agreed with them as noise quickly rose around him, mainly filled with cursing and pointless questions that were probably aimed in his direction. 

Will was trying to calculate if he could slip through the crowd and just go _home_ when one of the professors, Mr. C he reminded himself, finally spoke above the rest. “Want to explain what we just saw Mr. Solace?” The rest of the crowd quickly died down at the authority in the voice. Will swallowed before flashing his signature grin that would have people thinking he was a son of Aphrodite, if they knew he was a demigod of course.

“Oh, those were just two of my friends from camp Clarisse and Connor.” He paused minutely, hoping that he would be able to leave it at that. When no one moved, all still staring at him expectantly he shuffled slightly before spinning off a tiny lie. “It’s a year round camp so we're all pretty close. They were probably on a day trip into the city or something and Connor was being reckless and got hurt.” He flashed another signature grin silently hoping that they would just leave him alone.

Gods, you couldn't even stitch a person without grabbing attention these days.

“That doesn't explain why they came to you for help and why you tried stitching him yourself instead of taking him to the hospital!” Will internally cringed at the shrill voice of Melissa that cut through the crowd. She was one of the few former teachers favorite/top of the class that he annoyed simply by being better than them. He didn't know why he thought she _wouldn't_ be the one to insult his perfect stitching. 

“I've lived at the camp since I was 7 and wanted to be a doctor for as long as I’ve been there. When I got older, the infirmary staff started teaching me some tricks and I learned how to stitch for them, which came in handy whenever my friends would get injured doing something dumb, which with Connors pranks, was a lot. It’s really nothing, they just knew I was close by and Clarisse is distrustful of people.” He flashed another signature Solace Smile and was pleased to see some of the crowd leave with that answer. 

Being the son of the god of truth never meant he couldn't lie of course, it just meant he was extremely good with weaving truths into his lies, making them practically as strong as the actual truth. 

Sensing that people were finally pleased with his answer, he started walking away in the direction of his dorm, ignoring how there was almost definitely still blood on his hands. He could deal with that later. His acquaintances from before quickly surrounded him again and they all fell into familiar banter as they slowly all went to their dorms, the group dropping in number as everyone ventured home until it was only Will and two other girls that also lived in the furthest dorm with him. They were all laughing at some stupid joke when another voice caught up to them. 

“Hey Solace!” Will quickly turned around once more, turning his grimace into a smile as he eyed Sam, another kid who hated him for being good even though he wasn't even in the same field. He tried turning up the Solace charm in hopes of just being allowed to continue walking. He was dumb to hope.

“Whats up Sam?” His charming smile was met with a cold scowl. 

“Oh, I was just wondering why you had to go play medic in front of us? You could have easily just taken him to the hospital and gotten him better care instead of insisting on doing it yourself. I mean the kids screams could probably wake the dead with the torture you were putting him through! Just because you have the knowledge doesn't mean you have the guts to be a real helpful medic Solace.” 

Will could feel his eyes harden with the insults. He knew they were meant to get under his skin, but there was a part of him that just wanted to put Sam in his place. Also, wake the dead? He had a boyfriend that could do that just fine on his own, thank you very much. He remained calm, a feat that came natural to him after so many years as counselor and pasted on another smile. “Have I ever told you what I plan on doing with my degree Sam? Well you see, I've already dealt with many broken limbs and wounds requiring stitching. I've also been through anatomy 101 and in a couple life threatening situations. So I’m pretty set on being a combat medic. And you know the beauty in that?” He stepped closer to Sam, his sunny smile setting up a false pretense as the words harshly dropped from his mouth. _“That means I can break every single bone in your body while naming them.”_ With that he stepped back and turned around leaving a shocked Sam staring at him blankly. “Thanks for the advice Sam!” He called behind him as he jogged to catch up with the girls, ignoring the stunned man he left behind.

~

Nicos face lit up the Iris Message, as clear and beautiful as ever. Will had just barely had time to get in the shower and change clothes, his own curls laying a wet and tangled mess on his head as he smiled at his boyfriend. “Neeks!”

His answering scowl was almost immediate, though Will could tell he was holding back a smile. “I told you to stop calling me that.”

“Whatever you say, death boy.” Will flashed him another smile as Nico grumbled, the banter familiar and almost routine at this point. 

“Hey Will, you wouldn't happen to know why Connor came back with stitches from monster hunting, would you? Cause he refused to tell me and I would have gotten more information from him, but Mitchell was too busy switching between yelling at him and being a mother hen, so I didn't really get the chance to ask. And I know you have a friendship with Clarisse but she still looks two seconds away from trying to kill me every time I talk to her so...” Will laughed softly at the mental image of Mitchell trying to mother hen the son of Hermes, already knowing that Connor was probably melting under his touch. 

“Well I mean, I was the one to stitch him up, so I guess I would know.” Will loved the look Nico got on his face from just that statement. He already looked ready to smother Connor with a pillow for daring to disturb Will from his demigod-life vacation. It was kind of adorable.

“Don't worry, love, it wasn't that bad. Clarisse was half dragging him through the courtyard while shouting my name and I was just walking back to my dorm so it's not like I was busy.” He shrugged, watching his boyfriend calm down, his mood switching from Hurt Immediately to Hurt Sometime In The Near Future. Adorable. “I just stitched him up, had him eat a small cube of ambrosia and sent them on their way. Didn't even use my powers, I promise, Sunshine.” Nico blushed at that and his killing mood and plans to smother Connor seemed to disappear as he was too busy being flustered.

“If you say so,” he mumbled quietly into his hand. He cleared his throat before continuing louder. “Did anybody see?”

“Oh, only like everyone in the courtyard plus a few of my professors.” And oh so quickly did Nico go into Immediately Hurt/Kill mode. “Don't worry, I was able to lie my way out of it, made some excuse about going to a year round camp and helping the nurses in the infirmary.” Once again he calmed down and Will couldn't help but think Nico was like a cat, easily wound up and calmed again and again. With an instinct to kill too, of course. “Though Melissa and Sam did have some things to say about me stitching Connor up and not taking him to the hospital instead of course.”

Nico was all too familiar with Melissa and Sam. Will had already had to convince him multiple times to not come up to visit and have a ‘few words’ with them privately. 

“Oh?” he said, barely containing his anger.

“Yeah, nothing I couldn't handle. I told Melissa I learned from the nurses and had stitched people up multiple times before at camp and I probably scarred Sam for life, soo.” He shrugged secretly proud of himself for holding his own. It had taken a while for him to believe that his healing abilities weren’t pitiable compared to the other campers fighting abilities and proving that he could be intimidating, even as a son of Apollo, was always something he took pride in. 

“Awww, Sunshine,” Nico's proud voice filtered through the IM along with his prideful smile making Will blush. “I'm so proud of you. Intimidating even with your sunny attitude. I knew I loved you for a reason.”

Will blushed even harder at the words, trying to force his throat to reply actual words. “I love you too,” he mumbled. Nico laughed at his misfortune causing Will to blush harder. “Enough about me, how was camp today?”

As Nico launched into some crazy story involving Percy, Jason, Leo, Apollo and most of the Hermes cabin, his eyes lighting up with mischief he can't help but thinking that maybe staying in New York was the better option. He can't imagine being more than a state away from Nico, his dazzling eyes and his stupidly soft hair. If it took stitching up Connor Stoll in the middle of his campus surrounded by professors and students to get Nico to look at him like that again, well. He wouldn't hesitate.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering why Clarisse says 'Godsspell', I was looking for different ways to say goodbye, saw that, couldn't stop laughing, and decided I had to use it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! :)


End file.
